Ricki Lake, Tony Dovolani, Louis Van Amstel, and Tristan MacManus Review DWTS14 Week 8

Ricki Lake, Tony Dovolani, Louis Van Amstel, and Tristan MacManus all had some thoughts and reviews on Dancing With The Stars last night. Tony had such a blast with William who he says has such a “big heart”. Ricki and Tony thought Maria and Derek got short changed from the judges in both dances. They thought they short changed Donald and Peta as well. They loved Donald and Peta’s Jive and thought it was the best Trio dance. Tony hopes they get the encore (so do I! The two best dances for me last night were Karina, Donald, & Peta’s Jive and Derek & Maria’s Waltz). Neither could pick who is going home tonight. You can view the video with Ricki and Tony on GMA HERE.

Louis Van Amstel pretty much pegged the dances again (in my opinion) at ABC except for Derek and Maria. He doesn’t understand why they received 10′s for their first dance (wha??), but he didn’t understand the 8 either. Below is more. Be sure to read his full review at the link. I agree how tonight is a hard call for who will be eliminated and it’s going to be an emotional one.

Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd’s Tango. What’s difficult about the Tango is staying in close hold most of the time while still making it interesting. Donald did an awesome job, yet again. Great attack, and nice legato movements as well. Great posture. Nice creative ways to play with the hold, yet staying in hold. Totally agree with judges. Carrie Ann, I’m not sure what Donald could have done to create more drama. A Tango the face should stay calm, it’s the movement that should be dramatic, that’s what we call staccato. Good scores! If this was the last performance of the night it could have been 10 in my book.

Maria Menounos and Derek Hough’s Viennese Waltz. Beautiful job on the choreography, keeping it soft and tender. They have very nice chemistry, which was unexpected after seeing the video package. Maria shows that she will do anything necessary to make the top four, which in itself is admirable. Maria is a fighter and that’s inspirational, but from a dancing point of view, I miss the flexibility from her body. If Maria makes it to next week I’d like Derek to challenge her by giving her choreography that’s partly solo, so she can show America what she’s really made of. I actually disagree with Len. I thought it was too much in hold (not close hold, on that point I agree with Len). I want to see more side by side and true elements like spins to show individuality. I don’t get the 10′s. I don’t get the 8 either. For 10s Maria needed to be better technically and have more power behind her movement. Her performance was a 9 in my book.

Melissa Gilbert and Maks Chmerkovskiy’s Foxtrot. Melissa is holding her own in the package, not even attacking back, so good for her! OK, there was one little glitch in the beginning, but overall it was solid and powerful. As a matter of fact it was sometimes too powerful, sacrificing the soft and tender moments which are characteristic of the Foxtrot. Like last week, from the point of view of a choreographer, it was more challenging, which I always believe at this point in the game should be rewarded. I do think the atmosphere in rehearsals affected the performance. We needed to see more warmth between them. Following two weeks of being underscored, I feel this week the judges were overly nice. It was good though, not great. I’m glad Maks realizes he went too far. That’s a big deal. I think the score are appropriate, but I don’t get the judges giving all that praise and then awarding three eights!

Lastly, Tristan has written some highlights at Entertainment Weekly. He walks us through rehearsals and the pants mishap with Katherine. Did you know he also was cut last night? I loved what he wrote about losing one’s temper in rehearsals in this take….

Tons of rehearsal studio drama this week. How easy is it to lose your temper during training? The thing is with the cameras, the cameras are there from the minute you walk into the studio ’til the minute you leave. People lose their rag sometimes. But the thing is, it’s entirely up to the producers what they want to use in the packages and how they want to tell the particular story of what goes on that week. I think that’s really clear with Melissa each week. She’s trying to point out all the time, “well this isn’t what Maks is like all the time.” Some people do get angry sometimes and start to scream and they probably go a bit overboard sometimes. But maybe in the package they might show something going wrong and the teacher starts screaming and saying this and that and that. But that particular scream — that might not have even been what they were screaming about, know what I mean? Reactions become reactions to dance steps that had nothing to do with the original scream in the first place.

But at the same time, like I said, as far as people are in rehearsals, you want to have respect all the time. No one needs to be shoutin’, that’s all, whether they’re 19 or they’re 50 or whatever they are, for whatever reason. No need to shout at people. You don’t need to demean people, and most people remember that. We don’t know the whole story, and I certainly don’t. I shouldn’t be saying what people should be doing because I don’t know what goes on in that room. I just see the packages just like everyone else.

You can lose your temper because you want someone to do well, you can lose your temper because someone isn’t doing well, and you can lose your temper — as stupid as it sounds — because sometimes people just don’t want to do well. In the sense that well, you’re screaming at me all day, I don’t care what happens. But I try not to scream at people. It is what it is.

So, here’s to the results show. I am so nervous. I don’t want any of them to go?